This summer has seen a fairly significant influx of Crossbills, with flyover birds observed all over the place! I've been lucky enough too, with flyovers from the garden on three separate occasions. A welcome addition to the garden list!
I visited Bucknell Wood, near Silverstone quite a lot during June and July looking for butterflies. It is a site that I've seen Crossbill quite a few times over the last few years, however not for sometime. Frustratingly, throughout July, whenever anyone else visited, they saw Crossbills, however they somehow eluded me!
Finally on Saturday the 18/07 I heard the distinctive cacophony of 'clip, clip, clips' coming from across the wood and on reaching the central track, I got decent, yet fairly brief view of 20 Crossbills up in the pines. Carrying on along the path, I paused and had a scan of the path ahead. Some c.100m away, a small lump on the path looked distinctly birdy, but too far away to make out what it was. I marched along the track a bit closer and it became apparent it was a Crossbill! I slowly but surely moved closer and closer and gained increasingly good views.
Still it just sat there, just looking around, to the point that I was just a few feet away! This was bonkers and I thought something had to be wrong with it - it just didn't seem right that you could a approach one this closely without it flushing!
Having got some point-blank views of the bird, I quite literally had to walk around it to go past! It was only at that point that the Crossbill flew up to nearby pines and disappeared. What a bizarre, yet brilliant encounter! Perhaps though, it was indeed not too well.
Both Bucknell & Whistley Woods appear to have again supported a decent number of Spotted Flycatchers this year, with regular views and calls from various places throughout both sites. This one was particularly showy, catching insects over my head in Bucknell Wood on 26/07.
As July drew to a close and August began, the butterfly peak in Bucknell and local woods had passed, however there was still plenty to see, with at least 20 species on the wing. I had really struggled to see my first Small Copper of the year however finally I came across my first of 2020 in Bucknell on 02/08.
Among other things, I had some very nice views of Purple Hairstreaks down from the treetops, in both Bucknell & Whistley. There was a decent showing of 2nd brood Wood Whites, with several on the wing and a particularly sizable hatch of Peacocks towards the end of July with them springing up from everywhere, particularly on 18/07 with 54 counted in Bucknell - mostly from along one track!
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